West Sixth Announces Expansion, Plans to Can Lemongrass American Wheat

LEXINGTON, KY—West Sixth Brewing, a craft brewery located in Lexington, KY, today announced a major brewery expansion.

“When we started West Sixth less than two years ago, we never in a million years expected the amazing response our fans have given us,” said founder Ben Self.

“Today, we’re excited to announce that we’re embarking on a major expansion project,” said founder Brady Barlow. “This expansion will position us for continued growth over the next few years”.

West Sixth Brewing will be expanding into an additional 13,000 square feet of the Bread Box. The Bread Box is a multi-tenant development that is a historic Rainbo bread factory in Lexington, KY. Other tenants include Smithtown Seafood, the Broke Spoke community bike shop, the Bread Box Studio Artists, Magic Beans coffee roasters, the Rollergirls of Central Kentucky, and FoodChain, an indoor aquaponics farm.

“This expansion includes the addition of a new 40 barrel brewhouse and six 80 barrel fermenters,” said founder Joe Kuosman. “This will allow us to produce approximately 3 times the amount of beer that we could before in our previous 15 barrel system. We’ll also keep our 15 barrel system and brew smaller batches on it – which will allow us to explore even further our barrel aging program. Beers like Snakes in a Barrel, our barrel aged imperial stout, are incredibly popular, and we’ll be able to brew an even wider variety of them with this combination of systems.”

In addition to the new brewing equipment, West Sixth has also expanded with a new 1200 square foot cooler and centrifuge.

This expansion will also allow West Sixth to begin canning its third permanent beer. “Today, we’re also excited to announce that sometime over the next month, we’ll begin canning our newest beer, the Lemongrass American Wheat”, said founder Robin Sither. “This American wheat is brewed with Sorachi Ace hops and nearly 6 pounds of fresh lemongrass in each 15 barrel batch. The Sorachi Ace hop, which originated out of Japan, has a very unique flavor that we believe complements the lemongrass perfectly. It’s a craft beer drinker’s wheat.”

“We’re excited to be able to expand our can offerings with a third permanent can”, said founder Ben Self. “Ever since we introduced the West Sixth Amber in cans last year, we’ve heard time and time again that our fans want more options in a can. Obviously printing 200,000 cans of a new design is a big undertaking, but we’re excited to offer it.”

The can design, which was designed by local artist Brian Turner of Cricket Press, resembles the look of the IPA can with a teal and yellow design, and the use of lemongrass and lemon imagery.

The Lemongrass American Wheat will be rolled out on draft and in cans over the next 6 weeks throughout Kentucky and into Cincinnati, OH.